Consumer Credit Card Debt Reaches $30 Billion in Q3

With household finances already stretched thin and the latest G.19 Consumer Credit report now available from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, the personal-finance website WalletHub has released its new Credit Card Debt Study, which found that consumers added $30 billion in debt during the third quarter of 2023, which is 24% less than last year.

Other key findings in the report include:

• Not an inflation-adjusted record: In absolute terms, credit card debt is currently at a record high, at $1.2 trillion. Adjusted for inflation, however, the current total is 15% below the 2008 record.
• WalletHub projection: U.S. consumers will end the year with $100+ billion more credit card debt than they started with, WalletHub now projects.
• Early Q4 returns: Preliminary data for October shows a 6% increase in credit card debt compared to the same month last year.
• High average household debt: The average household credit card balance was $10,263 at the end of Q3 2023 (adjusted for inflation). That’s $2,131 below the record set in Q4 2007.

John Kiernan, WalletHub editor, saw the newest data as encouraging. “Inflation and high credit card interest rates can distort the picture people get of household finances,” he said in a press release. “You might see a $30 billion increase in credit card debt over just three months and think the sky is falling, but when you adjust for an apples-to-apples comparison, it’s clear that we’re slowing down our debt accumulation.”